Another case of a cacher not thinking it through IMHO....I hope this person had permission (although, from what I'm reading, I don't think so).

Was frisbee playing allowed here??

Seems like the NZ people haven't quite caught on to what Geocaching is yet. But the cache could have been an ammo case or not marked which would have created suspicion.
"While the area was blocked off, an employee from nearby Datacom came to police and told them the device was a geocache, a tracking device used by computer buffs.

Another case of a cacher not thinking it through IMHO....I hope this person had permission (although, from what I'm reading, I don't think so).

Was frisbee playing allowed here??

Seems like the NZ people haven't quite caught on to what Geocaching is yet. But the cache could have been an ammo case or not marked which would have created suspicion.
"While the area was blocked off, an employee from nearby Datacom came to police and told them the device was a geocache, a tracking device used by computer buffs.

I doubt it would have mattered much because of the location. Sounds like a sensitive area to me!

...Is there a security camera trained on the spot? If so, it's probably a lousy spot for a geocache.

This is very true.

Regarding the OP.

Caches do not cause bomb scares. What causes them is how people and the process react to a situation in a world where there are real bombs. It's important to remember the difference.

Why does one cache get a bomb squad responce when another gets a drug team responce while another gets a simple glace and no responce at all? It's how the people react to the cache. At all times the cache was just a cache.

Can a Lock N Lock be improvised into an explosive device? (Think sneaker on a plane.)

Would a muggle find a camo'd Lock N Lock affixed to an outside surface to be perfectly innocuous?

Poor judgment.

...in your opinion.

If the mere use of a lock-n-lock is poor judgement because a muggle might think that it's a bomb, then we may as well pack up the website, because the game is dead. One wonders why you even play this game, if you think that the mere use of a lock-n-lock is poor judgement.

Either way, PhxChem was speaking to seaf20's post that stated

Quote

seriously, that thing really looks like a bomb

It only 'really looks like a bomb' in the sense that a bomb could be made to look like anything.

To put the event into some context, in the past week or so there have been at least two bomb threats phoned into the courthouse only 200 or so metres away so when someone (already jumpy) watched some 'dodgy' activity on a CCTV camera they called the police. Police thought this must be Strike 3 so acted with full caution.

A local cacher who worked nearby spotted the activity, came out and talked everyone back down to planet Earth. I suspect the police took cache & contents away to at least have something in hand at the end of the day.

A radio station followed up the next day with a very good short interview with Pivotal - the cacher who assisted in defusing the ...situation.

[edit]And before there are any smart responses from those who listen to the clips, that's the way we pronounce it down here!

This post has been edited by GSVNoFixedAbode: 14 February 2008 - 03:02 PM